In body, I thought, but in spirit? In heart? I had my doubts. There was only so much loss a person could take.

“Ghost?”

“He’s recovering. He needed some work. He had cracked ribs and lost a couple of teeth. I arranged for dental implants. Titanium.”

“How—?”

“I have a friend in the industry,” he said with a faint smile.

There was one more name, but I was afraid to ask; and I vaguely remembered a moment like this with Top. Or was that a dream? Church read it on my face. He shook his head.

“No,” he said.

(2)

Church told me all of it.

The Book of Shadows was deciphered. Circe believed that it was the way the knights confessed their “sins” to God for everything they did to fulfill the Holy Agreement. Each entry was countersigned with the letter N. Nicodemus? Probably. Bill Toomey, the head of our handwriting analysis team, said that the same person countersigned every page, but of course that can’t be right.

Can it?

Toomey was doing carbon dating of the ink on all the signatures. I wasn’t sure I wanted to read his results.

Charles LaRoque was taken out by a Hellfire missile. Very appropriate. When the Iranians picked through the rubble they found three bodies. A driver, the remains of the last Scriptor of the Red Order, and the body of a man whose identity remains a mystery.

Grigor and the Upierczi from Aghajari? Like the song says, it’s all dust in the wind.

There are probably more of them out there. There are always monsters in the dark.

But Arklight is out there too. Hunting them, with the full resources of the DMS at its disposal.

If I were one of those bloodsucking freaks, I’d kill myself before I let Lilith’s people find me. I wonder if monsters have their own version of the boogeyman. I wonder if the thing that they dread when they go to sleep at night looks like a beautiful woman with eyes that hold not the slightest trace of mercy.

Rasouli tried to flee the country, too. Mr. Church made a phone call and even though Armanihandjob was in no way our friend, he was useful as a weapon. Rasouli will probably be in prison until the Middle East becomes a sunny center of tolerance and friendship for all.

Church, the presidents of America and Iran, and a few other key people met in Switzerland to discuss the Holy Agreement. The ayatollahs hoped to edit out Islamic involvement and lay it all on the Christian Church, but that was never going to happen.

“What will happen?” I asked Rudy, when he came back to visit me.

He smiled and shook his head. “Nothing visible. Nothing that will ever make the news.”

“Why the hell not?” I demanded, but Rudy looked at me with disappointment.